Editorial: Enlightened by the modern age?

We are a culture that tends to become excited about new things: a new home, a new car or simple pleasures, such as a new pair of shoes.

When the calendar flips to a new year, we tend to become optimistic about the coming months and days. Although the new year is a manmade benchmark, we symbolically and philosophically separate it from the previous 12 months.

A large portion of the population experienced an austere 2013 and look forward to what 2014 will bring. In general, we are people who are optimistic, as pessimism can quickly lead in the wrong direction.

Positive thoughts keep us motivated and driven to succeed.

Something that has not changed over time is the fact that there are still people who think innovatively and bring new ideas to the market — from Benjamin Franklin to Steve Jobs.

Last year saw a huge number of new digital contributions to business and communication activities — perhaps one of the biggest years ever in technological advancements.

Some of The MIT Technology Review’s top 10 digital developments of 2013 include: machines that can recognize objects and translate speech in real time; social media and email messages that quickly self-destruct, which could enhance the privacy of online communications and make people freer to be spontaneous; reading the DNA of fetuses, which could reveal a child’s genetic problems or musical aptitude; smart watches that strap on your wrist and are essentially what we know as smartphones; collecting and analyzing data from cell phones that provides insights into how people move about and behave and can in turn help us understand the spread of diseases.

Adapting to and finding our place in a new global marketplace will be challenging — something that many have already discovered.

Despite vast changes in technology and how we are changed by it, the future will always hold a place for those who are prepared to enter such a workforce.

Technology may serve us well; yet it also has dumbed us down. According to some experts, the percentage of third-graders in the United States who cannot read at a third-grade level is about 70 percent. Could it be because of various hand-held gadgets with which many spend a majority of their day? Pressing a button and hearing a story told is vastly different than reading that same story, writing a letter or just going outside to play.

Everyone ought to be mindful of not allowing such gadgets, no matter how intriguing, to take over our time, steal our money or become a substitute for who we are as people.

A version of this editorial first appeared in the Lexington Dispatch, a Halifax Media Group newspaper.